除夕夜的平价团圆饭Fair-priced Family Reunion Dinner on New Year's Eve

With Spring Festival approaching, the lunar New Year reunion dinner in China has become a major selling point of many catering companies. With widespread dismay throughout the past few years over the rising dinner prices, many restaurants have embraced the populist sentiment by lowering price to attract consumers.
春节临近，除夕的团圆饭成为了各大饭店的主营卖点。往年团圆饭因为价格上涨普遍遇冷，所以今年饭店纷纷降价，开始走平民路线以吸引顾客。

After the Chinese government called for its officials to curb public consumption and avoid extravagance in 2012, the number of official dinner banquets have substantially decreased, which has hammered the catering industry into the ground this past year.
自从2012年政府号召控制公款消费、避免浪费以来，公款宴请的数量急剧下降，这在去年让餐饮业跌到谷底。

A number of restaurants, especially upscale establishments located in five-star hotels, lowered their dinner prices to attract more regular consumers by offering the New Year's Eve dinner at a price of 200 yuan (33 US dollars) per person.
有很多饭店，尤其是高档的五星级饭店，都降价吸引普通顾客，年夜饭的人均价格降到200元。

Wu Jianqiu, vice president of Hong Kong Lao Shanghai Restaurant, said the feature of this year's family reunion dinner is going back to mass consumption. He said, "Our aim is to appeal to what is popular. We need to swallow our pride and lower ourselves to make more common dishes to attract the general public."
香港老上海饭店的副总经理吴建秋（音译）说今年团圆饭的特点是回归到平民消费，“我们的目的是趋于大众化，饭店要放下架子，做大众化菜，让一般的市民都能接受。”

There's no "sky-high priced" New Year's Eve dinner option at all this time. Wu said this is the biggest change they've made for the coming year. "Before the government's eight-point code to cut bureaucratic spending was released, we had medium and high-grade dinner reservations. But there have been no such reservations made since last year; we have not received a single reservation over 3000 yuan (500 US dollars)."
吴说来年最大的变化是不再有“天价”年夜饭。“往年在中央‘八项规定’之前，我们有中高档的预定，从去年开始就没有了，到目前为止，没有订过一桌超过3000元的。”

While New Year Eve's dinners will generally be more moderately priced, the Beijing Shang Hai Old Restaurant is offering two different meal packages made to be prepared at home. The two packages, meant to feed a party of 10, consist of eight cold dishes, eight hot dishes and two desserts. The packages are priced at 980 and 1680 yuan, respectively.
年夜饭的定价更加合理化的同时，北京上海老饭店提供了两种不同的为在家做饭准备的外带套餐，套餐为10人量，包括了8个凉菜，8个热菜和2个甜点。这样的套餐价格分别为980元和1680元。

Jin Liming, vice president of Beijing Shang Hai Old Restaurant said: "These semi-finished dinner packages cost only half the price of dishes ordered in restaurants. Although we face the rising cost of raw ingredients, we did not increase our dish prices. These packages are selling well, and we have sold over one thousand boxes."
北京上海老饭店的副总经理金来明（音译）说：“这种半成品套餐价格上是在饭店吃的价格的一半。尽管原材料成本上涨，但我们没有涨价。这种外卖套餐卖得很好，已经卖了1000多盒了。”

Mr. Wang made reservation for his family's reunion dinner at a restaurant one month ago. "Having a reunion dinner at a restaurant is more affordable now than it was last year. It saves us time, money and energy to seek out an alternative, cost-effective New Year's Eve dinner plan, especially for our big family -- more than 10 people. "
王先生在一个月前就预定了团圆饭。他说：“跟去年比起来，今年在饭店吃更实惠了。像我们这样十多人的大家庭，在饭店吃团年饭很划算，是一种可以节省时间、金钱和精力的选择。”

Offering fair-priced New Year reunion dinners is a rational move for China's catering industry to persevere through the market shift. Making delicious, affordable dishes for general consumption and providing good service will help catering companies sustain and, eventually, thrive.
对于中国餐饮业的转变来说，提供平价团圆饭确是明智之举。为普通市民提供可口的菜、公道的价格，以及优质的服务，就能让餐饮公司维持生存，而且发展壮大。